Apple supplier Pegatron halts iPhone assembly at India facility after fire

By Ben Blanchard and Praveen Paramasivam

CHENNAI (Reuters) -Apple supplier Pegatron temporarily halted iPhone assembly at its facility in south India on Monday after a fire incident on Sunday night, three sources told Reuters.

The Taiwanese firm has called off all shifts for the day at the factory near the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu state, and is yet to inform assembly workers whether the facility will function on Tuesday, two of the sources added.

Pegatron in a statement told Reuters that "there was a spark incident" at the facility that is currently under control, and the incident "does not have significant financial or operational impact" for the company.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

A local official with the emergency responses department said multiple fire engines from various stations had to be brought in to douse the fire, taking nearly five hours.

"There are no injuries, no casualties nor damage to other assets. The cause of accident is currently under investigations by (the) relevant authority," Pegatron said.

Pegatron currently accounts for 10% of Apple's iPhone production in India, according to research firm Counterpoint.

Apple Inc has bet big on India since it began iPhone assembly in the country in 2017 via Wistron and later Foxconn, as the Indian government pushed for local manufacturing.

Pegatron, which started iPhone assembly in India in September last year, is also in talks to open a second Indian contract facility for Apple near the existing one in Tamil Nadu.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard, Praveen Paramasivam, Munsif Vengattil, Aditi Shah and Sarah Wu; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Toby Chopra and Susan Fenton)